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Vic Zast

From the perspective of being an owner, an industry pioneer in corporate sponsorship, a track president and fan, Vic Zast writes the "Destinations" column for The Blood-Horse. His five-star ratings of international events have shed light on racing in all corners of the globe - from England, Australia, Hong Kong, Dubai to Japan.

Vic is a regular contributor to MSNBC.com, a columnist for the Illinois Racing News and has written on racing for ESPN.com, National Public radio and The Age, Australia's leading daily.

Vic makes his home in Chicago and lives in Saratoga Springs in August.

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Tuesday, December 21, 2010

(SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY – December 21, 2010) Winning the Triple Crown has never been easier. So a Triple Crown winner in 2011 is a wish with a reasonable chance to come true. “What?” you ask, believing the possibility incredible. The last Triple Crown winner was Affirmed 32 years ago.

Well, modern horse training tactics are such that trainers shy away from races two weeks apart. A trainer with a superior three-year-old, who can keep his horse healthy and moving forward right up to the Kentucky Derby, will find few Derby runners to beat for his Derby winner in the Preakness. Then it becomes simply a matter of conquering some late bloomers and plodders a mile and a half in the Belmont.

The obvious problem is that trainers squeeze the juice from the lemon too early. The less obvious problem, of course, is that a horse that could produce these results hasn’t run in the Derby recently. Eskendereya was the talk of the sport a year ago – the clear-cut favorite. Quality Road and I Want Revenge were the chalk the year before. None made it their business to race for the roses. This Christmas wish is that Uncle Mo does.

Uncle Mo won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile with such ease that he’s automatically been given the burden of wearing the garland in May. In less than a month when the Jockey Club publishes its Experimental Handicap, the unbeaten colt will be high-weighted. To Honor and Serve, Boys At Tosconova and Comma to the Top will get props. The untested Brethren will ascend to the role of the wise guys’ selection. But fans everywhere say that Mike Repole’s son of the sire Indian Charlie is the head of this class – and a good class it seems to be now.

With the schneid off at last, trainer Todd Pletcher said Uncle Mo will race twice before heading to Louisville – once perhaps in a seven furlong sprint or a mile at one turn and then next in the Wood Memorial. Such wimpy auditions should suit the colt nicely. Based on how brightly the soon-to-be-named juvenile champ has shone, his connections must be dreaming of grandeur. But who knows how racing’s gods think?

If you've missed any of the previous 12 Days of Christmas wishes for the horse racing industry, simply move to the right hand margin of this page where the archives appear. You'll see the links there. See you tomorrow.

It will be a cold day in hell before we see another triple crown winner.

Uncle Mo???..........Not hardly. In fact wishful thinking at best.

Let’s just put it to you this way:

We’ll be watching him go backwards at the eighth pole in the 2011 edition of the 137th running of the “Kentucky Derby”.

Lower foal crops does not equal a triple crown winner.

Sorry to crush your hopes and suck the life out of your dreams but...Triple Crown = Pipe Dream.

Retiring our runners (by the age of four) has become so “pathetic” that wishing for a triple crown winner would be your worst nightmare, Mr. Zast.

The fans will once again be cheated out of watching a triple crown winner run at the age of four.

We need to “keep the focus” on the older horse and “how the fan becomes so much more involved when they can watch the long career of a horse”, Mr. Zast. We need to “get rid of the 3yr old scene”, Understood?

Get rid of the Triple Crown races and focus on the older horse and mare.

Remember the good ole days, Mr. Zast?

Secretariat ruined everything because “horses became syndicated” and the owners took them off the racetrack and told the fans to f’ themselves.

I agree with many of your points, Niatross. If a horse wins the Triple Crown, he’d be retired so fast it would make a hiccup seem slow.

I agree also that Zenyatta gave much to the sport by staying in action through her 5-year-old season. Goldikova is coming back next year for a fourth Breeders’ Cup victory and Gio Ponti will race again. Won’t that be enjoyable?

But don’t sweep the three-year-olds under the rug, please. The next four months leading up to the Kentucky Derby and the most exciting in horse racing. I’m not so naive to believe Uncle Mo is the “Chosen One.” But I do believe that one of these years, we’ll see him.

Thanks for reading and writing. By the way, I visited Saratoga Raceway today where your namesake suffered his most surprising defeat. Toured the barn of a harness horseman named Frank Salino. Have you watched the Niatross loss at Saratoga on YouTube.com?

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